NBN Co’s executive chairman,
Ziggy Switkowski
, has begun meeting telecommunications veterans, including national broadband network critic
Henry Ergas
, as part of a review into potential changes to the network.

Sources close to the company say Dr Switkowski, appointed earlier this month, is receiving internal briefings but is primarily relying on the expertise of at least two external telecommunications veterans to detail a framework for the review into the viability of changing technologies in the roll out.

Dr Switkowski and NBN Co board members
Alison Lansley
and
Kerry Schott
are due to report to Mr Turnbull by December 2.

In preparation, Dr Switkowski has met with consulting firms who sources said were “knocking on the door" to bid for work under NBN Co’s new management, despite insistence by Mr Turnbull that the strategic review be carried out by the company itself. He has also met with Dr Ergas, an economist and senior economic adviser to Deloitte Access Economics, one of the firms bidding for consulting work at NBN Co.

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Nothing formal

Dr Ergas confirmed he had met with Dr Switkowski since the latter’s appointment to NBN Co, but said there had been no formal consulting appointments. It is believed Mr Ergas has also met several times with Mr Turnbull in the past few months.

“It’s a very short time frame and they will need to move expeditiously," Mr Ergas told the Financial Review.

Mr Ergas, who has previously consulted for Mr Turnbull and Telstra, was a key vocal critic of Labor’s broadband policy, attacking the fibre optic network as being overly expensive and likely to make significant losses.

A cost-benefit analysis of the national broadband network Mr Ergas conducted of his own volition in 2009 estimated the benefits of the network at between $14 billion and $20 billion, which he said was outweighed by the Labor government’s $37.4 billion plan. He advised at the time that the network should only be built for a budget of $17 billion or less.

The Coalition government’s plan relies on a capital budget of $20.4 billion by using fibre-to-the-node technology to more cheaply deploy fast broadband.

Former communications minister
Stephen Conroy
, who was on Monday appointed deputy Senate leader of the opposition, was critical of Mr Ergas.

Firms lobbying

“Turnbull is rounding up all the Liberal stooges together so that he can dismantle and misrepresent the national broadband network and where it’s up to," he said. “But Henry Ergas – the man who said it would cost $200 to have an NBN account per month when it’s only costing people $29 a month on the cheapest of plans – has been brought in to dismantle the national broadband network."

Sources say several firms are using the change in management to lobby for new work on the strategic review and on an expected cost-benefit analysis of fast broadband, which Mr Turnbull will appoint shortly.

“We’ve had a steady stream of consultants and advisory firms through the door presenting their credentials," an NBN Co spokesman said. “But we haven’t taken any decision about their employment."

But Mr Turnbull was insistent Dr Switkowski’s strategic review would not rely heavily on consulting firms.

“It’s really important that the directors and the management own this," he said earlier this month.

“They should get advice from experts, you know, inside the company, outside the company – sure. But they have got to, at the end of the day, be able to say to the government, as shareholder, this is where we honestly, genuinely, objectively, soberly believe this project is right now."